JK Rowling has never made a secret of the tensions and violence that populated his first marriage. At the time, thirty years ago, she had lost her mother and she had moved to Portugal to teach English. That’s where the Harry Potter saga was born (published in Italy by Salani) and it was there that her first daughter, Jessica, was born, who she said she saved from aggressive husband, former TV journalist Jorge Arantes. During the podcast The Witch Trials of JK Rowling the writer told how the man held the manuscript hostage of the first book, The philosopher’s Stoneto prevent her from leaving him.
Now, according to reports from the Daily Mail, Arantes has come forward to deny the allegations: «I don’t know why he says things like that – he declared – perhaps he is delusional after three years of lockdown due to Covid». What he insinuated afterwards, however, left the wizard’s fans speechless to say the least: Arantes claimed part of the authorship of theOpera. “While she was writing it, I too participated – he said – she read it to me and I to her».
The two got married in 1992 and went to live with his mother, but the union foundered after less than a year due to the oppressive behavior of the man, according to the writer’s testimony. «He searched my bag every time I came home – JK Rowling said during the podcast – and I didn’t even have the entrance key because he controlled everything. He wasn’t stupid at all, I think he knew or suspected that I wanted to leave him. Meanwhile the manuscript was growing. He knew how important it was to me, so he took it from me, hid it and held it hostage».
To save the story of Harry Potter, the author invented a ploy: she stole a few pages at a time, photocopied them at work and put them back in their place every day, so that she wouldn’t notice. She feared—her words—her that she “could burn him.”
When Arantes threatened not to let her see her daughter again, JK Rowling turned to the police. The next day, accompanied by the police, she returned to the apartment to reunite with the child.
The man confirmed the episode a The Sunin a 2020 interview: «I slapped Joanne but it is not a question of serious abuses. Anyway I’m not sorry I did(…) of having slapped her pretty hard in the middle of the street».
Back in Edinburgh, Arantes followed her to the first flat bought with the proceeds of Harry Potterbut then the writer has rebuilt her life and since 2001 she has been married to Dr. Neil Murray, with whom she has two other children.
Who knows if this latest idea of her first ex-husband is a declaration of war or simple revenge. In fact, even three decades later, the circle does not seem to have closed.
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Source: Vanity Fair
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